KEY POINTS:
The sound of gunfire was as loud as it was inexplicable to the hundreds of students who were barely wiping the sleep from their eyes shortly after 7am in the large dormitory building on the campus of Virginia Tech University.
It sounded like gunfire to some but surely
it couldn't be. Minutes later, at 7.15am, the first emergency calls arrived at the headquarters of the university police. Even then, no one knew exactly what was happening.
Officers from the unit rushed to the scene, West Ambler Johnston Hall, a large, co-ed dormitory building, home to 895 people.
What they found was terror and chaos. Petrified students were running down its halls, either trying to find a place of safety or escape the building. Some were jumping from windows. Then, on the fourth floor, they saw what they feared the most; blood on the floor and a body. Of a shooter there was no sign, however.
The mayhem and the horror were only just beginning.
It was roughly two hours later that officials received word of a second assault, this time on the other side of the campus at Norris Hall, a building dedicated to the university's engineering facility.
West Ambler Johnston Hall and Norris Hall are separated by the college's large drill field.
Police said they were still trying to investigate the first shooting when information of the second attack came through. Shortly after that, at 9.26am, the university sent an email to the student body declaring an emergency and shootings had occurred.
While it seemed some students had received word to stay indoors, others proceeded to class. Classes were under way on different floors of Norris Hall, when the second burst of deadly violence broke out.
One student reported she and other classmates were close to finishing a test in Norris Hall when they heard gunshots from a floor beneath them, followed by screaming.
Within about 10 minutes, after the noise died down, police officers in bullet-proof vests burst into the classroom, told students to put their hands on their heads and that if they didn't co-operate they would be shot.
Students then began to get word of friends who were inside at the time.
"One of my friends was teaching a class in Norris Hall, where the second incident took place," said Mihai Alexe.
"She sent me an email and an instant message ... she succeeded in barricading herself with other students in one of the classrooms and, as far as I know, she is now safe."
By 2.30pm, the scale of the tragedy, the worst college shooting in American history, was still expanding with word coming that the death toll had risen to 31 people. It climbed further.
At least one professor was seen leaving Norris Hall, the sleeve of his shirt covered with blood.
"I still can't believe this has happened," said one student, Mia Ortega. "My tears continue to pour."
An Irish exchange student, identified only as Nicola, who had just arrived at Virginia Tech from Dublin, emailed a message to the BBC.
"A murderer on campus on our first day here is as bad as it could get, this is unbelievable."
People being "shot on my campus is totally unthinkable and unbelievable. It's like something out a movie, but it's real", added another student, Timothy Owen.
In the midst of the chaos, some of the bodies were seen being hauled out of the buildings by students before medical staff and ambulances had arrived. Attempts to take the wounded to local hospitals were hampered by high winds which made the use of evacuation helicopters impossible.
The shootings will raise questions about the level of security at the college, which, like most other large further education facilities in the US, has its own on-site police force.
Controversy may be all the more acute because the college's recent history of violence. In August, an escaped inmate from a nearby prison penetrated the campus. He was rearrested only after a security guard and a sheriff's deputy were shot dead.
Virginia Tech's website also announced that a reward of US$6000 ($8112) had been posted yesterday for information leading to the arrest of those behind two bomb hoaxes at the campus on April 2 and April 13. When emergency announcements were first made yesterday, some initially thought the commotion was connected to the bomb threats.
The president of the university, Charles Steger, confirmed shortly before 1pm that a shooter had been identified and killed.
Now urgent questions are bound to be asked as to what transpired in the two hours that separated the first assault and the second wave of deadly attacks.
Quotes:
PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH "Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American class and in every American community."
TECH PRESIDENTCHARLES STEGER "We had no reason to suspect any other incident was going to occur [after the first shooting]."
STUDENT BILLY BASON "I think the university has blood on their hands because of their lack of action after the first incident. If you had apprehended a suspect, I could understand having classes even after two of your students have perished. But when you don't have a suspect in a college environment and to put the students in a situation where they're congregated in large numbers in open buildings, that's unacceptable to me." TREY PERKINS Was sitting in a German class in Norris Hall. "The shots seemed like it lasted forever."
ERIN SHEEHAN Also in the German class. The gunman "was just a normal-looking kid, Asian ... When we left, only four of us left [out of a class of 25]. Everyone else was unconscious, either dead or wounded seriously."
ALEC CALHOUN "I knocked over desks and pulled screen windows and jumped from the second floor. I could see people in front of me land and hurt their ankles and legs. I aimed for a bush thinking it would help break my fall and I landed on my back. The two people directly behind me jumping out were shot."
NICK VOZZA "Everybody tried to get out of the building but all the doors were locked. We couldn't get out. It was me, and my partner and the professor. So they told us to get down and we did but finally the police squads busted down the door and escorted us out."
- INDEPENDENT / NZ HERALD STAFF
